Menu Labeling

What it is: Requires fast food and chain restaurants to post in plain view the number of calories in each item they offer so customers can see it when ordering.

 

Why it’s Upstream: Nine out of 10 restaurant goers underestimate the calories of less-healthy food items by, on average, more that 600 calories—that’s more than a person should eat at an entire meal. Adults eating at fast-food restaurants consume 205 more calories than those who don’t, which is contributing to the obesity epidemic and the explosion of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. But studies show that if consumers see calorie information as they order their food, they eat fewer calories—up to 100 calories less, which can make a real dent in the obesity epidemic.

 

What we’re doing: Upstream spearheaded this initiative in 2007 and with a coalition was successful in passing menu labeling in Multnomah County and statewide in the 2009 legislative session (for details on our past work, click here). Upstream’s Mel Rader was recently appointed to the Oregon Department of Human Services’s menu labeling rulemaking advisory committee to develop administrative rules and plans for the implementation of the menu-labeling bill.